An exhaustive and authoritative investigation into the Christadelphians with links from their own sources as well as insights from former members. Complete examination of their history, organisation, theology, practices, and the challenges they face.

Why Providence and Independence of Mind Equipped John Thomas to Rediscover the Truth

“But for Alexander Campbell, the human probability is there would have been no John
Thomas; and, so far as we can see, but for John Thomas, those who now rejoice in
the truth, would have been sitting, like the rest of the world, in “darkness and
the shadow of death”.

The connection between Campbellism and the career that led Dr. Thomas to the discovery
of the truth, accounts for the prominence of the former in this narrative.
That will not be regretted by those who desire to see the chain of circumstances
that led the Doctor to the result for which Campbellism paved the way. The
interesting and instructive story of the truth’s revival cannot be told without
a recital of the history of Campbellism, in so far as it bore upon the career of
the man through whom that revival was effected - a man at first welcomed by the
leaders of Campbellism as a “chosen vessel”, but soon bitterly discarded and maligned.

Dr Thomas was naturally qualified for his great work. His intellect was a
fine balance between perception and reflection, adapting him for accurate observation
and reasoning, while a scientific education increased those powers. On the
other hand. His independence and fidelity to conviction, fitted him to advocate
the results of study without compromise. Yet, left to himself, those qualifications
must have taken a different direction. It required the circumstances to which
he was subjected to bring him into the path of Biblical discovery. This discovery
was not a result upon which he had set his mind. He had no idea that discovery
in this department was possible. He supposed theology was as much a settled
branch of knowledge as any other, and, as a young man, he took no special interest
in it…

The pressure of circumstances alone forced him into a religious path. His
theological career was emphatically a providential development. He neither
designed nor inclined it. It was the result of special circumstance, operating
upon his peculiarly constituted mind.”

“The Doctor was a remarkable man, and was the instrument of a remarkable work, which
required strongly-marked characteristics for its accomplishment. The work
is patent to all who know and love the truth. He performed the work of an
apostle, and lived long enough to see that work placed upon a permanent basis.
The peculiarities necessary to do the work were:- firstly, a clear, well-balanced,
scientific intellect, and a non-emotional, executive nature, enabling him to reason
accurately, and perceive and embrace conclusions in the face of prejudice and sentiment;
secondly, self-reliance and an independence almost to the point of eccentricity,
disposing him to think and act without reference to any second person, and if need
be, in opposition to friend as foe; thirdly, a predominating conscientiousness impelling
him in the direction of right and duty; and fourthly, great boldness and fluency
of speech which qualified him for the enunciation of the truth discovered in the
face of the world in arms.

These qualities fitted him to follow the pursuit of truth, uninfluenced by the social
forces that are all-powerful with ordinary men. Without them he would have
been liable, at all stages of his career, to be turned off track. Veneration
for antiquated opinions and a prevailing sympathy with his kind, would have embarrassed
him in the acceptance of conclusions adverse to those of religious society, and,
probably, deterred him from pursuing his researches to a sufficient length even
to percieve these conclusions. They would certainly have interfered with their
effective promulgation. Mildness of speech would have been incompatible with
that pronounced and definite expression of conviction which was necessary at a time
of universal self-complacency.

Yet the qualities that fitted him for the work in hand made him appear to a disadvantage
in other relations, and, undoubtedly, unsuited him for other kinds of good work.
Like a tool shaped and tempered for a specific purpose, he was out of place away
from that purpose, and this negativeness. Under such circumstances, has given
his enemies occasion for cavil. The part of friends has been rather to hide
than expose infirmity. Gratitude threw the fold of protection over what may
have been deemed the faults of an otherwise great, and noble, and extraordinary
character. Good sense has looked at the entire situation, and acted accordingly.
What was wanted was a man to break the clods: to open war against the world;
to do the rough work connected with the nineteenth-century resowing of the good
seed of the kingdom, and these qualities were such as to unfit him for some others.”